CanTherebeUnity (continued)
1. First, "That the world is a source of great danger to the soul." 2. Secondly, "What is not meant by separation from the world." 3. Thirdly, "What real separation from the world consists." 4. Fourthly, "The secret of victory over the world." And now, before I go a single step further, let me warn every reader of this paper that he will never understand this subject unless he first understands what a true Christian is. If you are one of those unhappy people who think everybody is a Christian who goes to a place of worship, no matter how he lives, or what he believes, I fear you will care little about separation from the world. But if you read your Bible, and are serious about your soul, you will know that there are two classes of (those who call themselves) "Christians"—converted and unconverted. You will know that what the Jews were among the nations of the Old Testament, this the true Christian is meant to be under the New. You will understand what I mean when I say that true Christians are meant, in like manner, to be a "peculiar people" under the Gospel, and that there must be a difference between believers and unbelievers. To you, therefore, I make a special appeal this day. While many avoid the subject of separation from the world, and many absolutely hate it, and many are puzzled by it, give me your attention while I try to show you "the thing as it is." 1. First of all, let me show that "the world is a source of great danger to the soul." Remember, that by "the world," I do not mean the material world on the face of which we are living and moving. He that pretends to say that anything which God has created in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, is in itself harmful to man's soul, says that which is unreasonable and absurd. On the contrary, the sun, moon, and stars —the mountains, the valleys, and the plains—the seas, the lakes, and rivers—the animal and vegetable creation—all are in themselves "very good" (Genesis 1:31). All are full of lessons of God's wisdom and power, and all proclaim daily, "The hand that made us is Divine." The idea that "matter" is in itself sinful and corrupt is a foolish heresy. When I speak of "the world" in this paper, I mean those people who think only, or chiefly, of this world's things, and neglect the world to come—the people who are always thinking more of earth than of heaven, more of time than of eternity, more of body than the soul, more of pleasing man than of pleasing God. It is of them and their ways, habits, customs, opinions, practices, tastes, aims, spirit, and tone, that I am speaking when I speak of "the world." This is the world from which Paul tells us to "Come out and be separate." Now "the world," in this sense, is an enemy to the soul. There are three things which a baptized Christian must renounce and give up, and three enemies which he must fight with and resist. These three are the flesh, the devil, and "the world." All three are terrible foes, and all three must be overcome if we would be saved. Let us turn to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. If the texts I am about to quote do not prove that the world is a source of danger to the soul, then there is no meaning in words. (a) Let us hear what the Apostle Paul says "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God" (1 Corinthians 2:12). "Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age [world]" (Galatians 1:4).
"You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world" (Ephesians 2:1-2). "Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me" (2 Timothy 4:10) (b) Let us hear what James says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" (James 1:27). "Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God" (James 4:4). (c) Let us hear what John says "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:15-17). "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him" (1 John 3:1). "They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them" (1 John 4:5). "Everyone born of God overcomes the world" (1 John 5:4). "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19).
(d) Let us hear, lastly, what the Lord Jesus Christ says "The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life [this world] and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful" (Matthew 13:22). "You are of this world; I am not of this world" (John 8:23). "The world cannot accept Him [Holy Spirit], because it neither sees Him nor knows Him" (John 14:17). "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first" (John 15:18). "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you" (John 15:19). "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). "They are not of the world, even as I am not of it" (John 17:16). I make no comment on those texts. They speak for themselves. If anyone can read them carefully, and fail to see that "the world" is an enemy to the Christian's soul, and that there is an utter opposition between the friendship of the world and the friendship of Christ, he is past the reach of argument, and it is a waste of time to reason with him. To my eyes they contain a lesson as clear as the sun at noon day. I turn from Scriptures to matters of fact and experience. I appeal to any old Christian who keeps his eyes open, and knows what is going on in the Churches. I ask him whether it is not true that nothing damages the cause of Christianity so much as "the world"? It is not open sin, or open unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing